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Sustained cost pressures and commitments to net zero have made energy efficiency a strategic priority for telecoms operators; sustainability registered as a top network transformation priority for operators around the world in 2024. Partnering with a global set of mobile operators, GSMA Intelligence leveraged its independent position and analytical capabilities to launch its Energy Efficiency Analysis and Benchmarking project in 2020. The benchmark is based on fully anonymised, real-world data inputs, with a goal of quantifying network energy consumption, efficiency levels and fuel sources. With each successive year, operator participation in the benchmarking project has grown. The result is a unique, increasingly salient, network-level global data set on energy efficiency, alongside insights into sustainability trends, technologies and best practices.

While there are several indicators and metrics in the telecoms sector, there is not yet a comprehensive or holistic metric to measure environmental sustainability. Thus, GSMA Intelligence has developed the Green Network Index (GNI), which proposes a single figure that attempts to summarise overall environmental sustainability for networks and outline an evolutionary path. This recommended figure includes 10 elements, including resource and emission efficiency, renewable energy usage, network performance, availability and vertical enablement, among others.

Today, mobile connectivity is not only a means for people to communicate but is also an important tool for governments and other authorities to stimulate socioeconomic progress, support vulnerable people and build innovative solutions to enhance the well-being of society. Mobile technologies and services now generate around 5.8% of global GDP, a contribution that amounts to $6.5 trillion of economic value added. 5G, in particular, continues to benefit most sectors of the global economy. Mobile’s ability to deliver economic growth relies on spectrum. Today, the mobile ecosystem is already working with governments to plan spectrum for 6G, spectrum which will come into use around the 2030s.

The complexity of reorienting network strategy around sustainability means a clear framework is key for prioritising when and where actions should be taken. This report outlines such a framework, offering telecoms operators and their suppliers a 'true north' to guide decision-making.

The economics of rolling out telecoms networks in rural areas have long proved challenging. The difficulties centre on running a high fixed cost business against a lower revenue base. To examine the state and outlook for energy use among African telecoms operators, GSMA Intelligence ran a data gathering exercise involving most of the largest telecoms operators in the region.

This Insight Spotlight is the third part of a series - called 5G Next - to help better understand the promising 5G technology innovations shaping mobile networks. This edition explores the future of antennas and the potential impact of the digitalisation of antennas on operator finances and service quality.

This Insight Spotlight is the second part of a series - called 5G Next - to help better understand the next phase of the 5G era and highlight promising technology innovations shaping networks. This edition explores automated solutions, also known as orchestration, which can help deliver energy-efficient 5G deployments and achieve the right balance between energy use and user experience.

An emerging area of focus for net zero is energy production and its supply to the power grid. Virtual power plants offer mobile operators opportunities for more stable power capacity, more efficient use of renewables, and a revenue stream from frequency balancing and power sales.

Sustained cost pressures and commitments to net zero have made energy efficiency a strategic priority for telecoms operators. Partnering with a global set of mobile operators, GSMA Intelligence leveraged its independent position and analytical capabilities to launch its Mobile Energy Efficiency Benchmarking project in 2020. The benchmark is based on fully anonymised, real-world data inputs, with a goal of quantifying network energy consumption, efficiency levels and fuel sources. 2023 was the third year of tracking energy efficiency by GSMA Intelligence.

The huge rise in mobile data traffic forecast over the remainder of the decade means both edge and cloud compute will have to handle higher capacity loads. How best to increase the energy efficiency of those parts of the network? How far along are technical innovations in the edge and cloud compared to the radio network?

The GSMA Mobile Economy series provides the latest insights on the state of the mobile industry worldwide. The reports contain a range of technology, socioeconomic and financial datasets and analysis, including forecasts out to 2030.

This follow-up report to "5G energy efficiencies: green is the new black" establishes the context and rationale for improving energy efficiency among operators and their supply chain. This comes as 5G enters a new phase, with 5G adoption reaching more than 15% from almost nothing three years ago.

The GSMA Mobile Economy series provides the latest insights on the state of the mobile industry worldwide. The reports contain a range of technology, socioeconomic and financial datasets and analysis, including forecasts out to 2030.

Open RAN is a network strategy with growing appeal, but still only adopted by a small proportion of operators and mostly on a small scale. Despite this, there is a surprisingly strong vote of confidence in open RAN's power efficiency. Little has been reported in the way of actual results, so is this confidence justified?

This report is the final of a three-part series on the technological and business implications of sustainability in the telecoms industry. The focus of this report is reputation and external relations, and how perceptions among all touchpoints for telecoms operators are realigning towards a green set of priorities.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition outlines the key market trends and developments in Greater China for Q2 2023.

The GSMA Mobile Economy series provides the latest insights on the state of the mobile industry worldwide. The reports contain a range of technology, socioeconomic and financial datasets and analysis, including forecasts out to 2030.

This report is the first part of a new series, called 5G Next, to better understand the next phase of the 5G era and to highlight promising technology innovations that are shaping networks. This report explores reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) solutions, which can help with the delivery of cost-efficient 5G deployment and make more economical use of higher spectrum bands in indoor and dense urban environments.

How will rising enterprise data traffic and workloads affect overall energy usage and efficiency? And what can operators, vendors and others do to mitigate energy consumption? To answer these questions, GSMA Intelligence surveyed 100 operators and developed a model to simulate the impact of changing enterprise traffic flows across a range of industries.

The GSMA Mobile Economy series provides the latest insights on the state of the mobile industry worldwide. The reports contain a range of technology, socioeconomic and financial datasets and analysis, including forecasts out to 2030.

This report serves as part of a broader research partnership with Arm to understand how best to decarbonise compute, how this can be achieved and why this matters for the ICT industry.

The GSMA Mobile Economy series provides the latest insights on the state of the mobile industry worldwide. The reports contain a range of technology, socioeconomic and financial datasets and analysis, including forecasts out to 2030.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition outlines the key market trends and developments in Greater China for Q1 2023.

MWC Shanghai returned as an in-person event this year. The key takeaways from the show span 5G, open network APIs, devices, spectrum and digital transformation, while the implications stretch across the telecoms ecosystem both in China and around the world.

This is the second of a three-part series from GSMA Intelligence on the technological and business implications of sustainability in the telecoms industry. The research aims to give an evidence-based view of why going green makes business sense, and how this can be done effectively. The series comprises three reports covering: overall rationale and outlook; the financial case; and the reputational and external relations case.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition outlines the key market trends and developments in Europe for Q4 2022.

Sustained cost pressures and commitments to net zero in support of the 2015 Paris Agreement have made energy efficiency a strategic priority for many telecoms operators around the world. This is compounded by data traffic rises associated with LTE and 5G migration. To help provide an evidence base for measuring progress, we partnered with a group of operators to develop a Mobile Energy Efficiency Benchmarking tool. The tool is based on real-world data inputs from operators on a fully anonymised basis to quantify network energy consumption and efficiency levels, and fuel sources.